Council rejects funds transfer for jobs

The City Council on Monday narrowly voted against a $63,000 budget transfer that would have spared the jobs of two workers in the human services department.

By a 4-3 vote, aldermen said moving the funds to keep a full-time caseworker and part-time accounting clerk goes against the will of voters and undermines an austere spending plan officials approved in June.

“This issue is difficult, because you’re dealing with human beings. But when a city doesn’t live within the budget it passes, that’s not a good road to travel down,” Mayor Peter Nystrom said. “If we start with this process tonight, the question I have is, ‘when will it end?’”

Several departmental workers attended Monday’s meeting, and filed out quickly after the council’s vote, visibly emotional.

“It’s going to have a significant impact on the services we provide,” Human Services Director Bev Goulet told reporters outside the council chambers.

Council members Tucker Braddock Jr., Charlie Jaskiewicz, Sofee Noblick and Nystrom voted against the resolution.

The money was slated to come out of a $478,432 account from non-departmental expenses in the general fund. Dollars from that fund can be used for “unanticipated expenses/obligations, increases in fuel and utilities costs and contract negotiations with city unions” according to a budget description.

The council finalized its $116.5 million 2013-14 budget in June.

Proponents of the resolution said eliminating the positions would have a devastating impact on departments outside of human services, since union seniority means employees from other city departments will be shifted around.

City Council President Pro Tempore Peter Desaulniers, who voted in June to strip funding for the positions, reversed course on Monday.

“I have to confess in front of everybody there’s a point I missed. You can’t look at the budget by the numbers itself. You have to look at the numbers and what they’re going mean for the entire operation of the city,” he said.

Aldermen Braddock and Jaskiewicz said they were uncomfortable using money from one fund to patch holes in another.

“We’re taking money from a fund that’s meant for an emergency,” Braddock said. “I don’t feel that we’re doing the right thing by the citizens who have voted for us.”

Alderwoman Deb Hinchey, who is running for mayor, voted in favor of restoring the jobs, saying she was swayed by a petition signed by more than 600 people supporting the move.

“I believe that we have to listen to what people say, and the number of those signatures impressed me,” she said.